October 28, 1980 -12b-1 Fees approved. Today in 1980, the SEC approved 12b-1 fees to cover mutual fund marketing expenses. According to Joel Goldberg's oral history, pressure from mutual funds led to the move. The result was an explosion of “no-load” funds and an increase in mutual fund ownership.
On Thursday, November 18, the SEC Historical Society will conduct a live public broadcast on the evolution of the SEC Solicitor’s Office, focusing especially on the careers of the Commission’s first three Solicitors: David Ferber (Solicitor from 1964 – 1980), Paul Gonson (Solicitor from 1980 – 1999), and Jacob H. Stillman (Solicitor from 1999 – 2014).
Panelists include David M. Becker, Michael A. Conley, Daniel L. Goelzer, and Harvey L. Pitt.
Moderated by historian Kenneth Durr, the program will explore why the Commission might have created the Solicitor position and what about the SEC as an institution enabled the office to work and keep working over the years.
The panelists, each of whose SEC tenure included service alongside one or more of the three former Solicitors, will discuss how the Solicitors’ personalities shaped the office. The panel will also explore the relationship between the SEC and the Solicitor General’s office, and the cases that that changed the shape of securities laws.
Live Webcast
Tuesday, October 12, 2021
On January 13, 2010, the SEC’s Enforcement Division, led by Robert S. Khuzami, announced formation of national specialized units it established in five priority areas: asset management; market abuse; structured and new products; foreign corrupt practices; and municipal securities and public pensions. (A sixth unit, focusing on cybersecurity, was formed in 2017.)
The Commission announced the new units would “help provide the additional structure, resources, and expertise necessary for enforcement staff to keep pace with ever-changing markets and more comprehensively investigate cases involving complex products, markets, regulatory regimes, practices and transactions.”
The new structure, which included a new Office of Market Intelligence, was considered the most significant reorganization since the Enforcement Division’s establishment in 1972.
This program explores the evolution, successes and challenges of the Division’s specialized units over the last decade.
This program is made possible with the support of Morgan, Lewis and Bockius, LLP.
September 11, 2021 marked the 20th anniversary of the suicide bombings carried out by al Qaeda terrorists. Co-hosted by ASECA and the SEC Historical Society, this program featured key figures of the U.S. financial system who led our markets in the hours, days and weeks following the attacks.
Carman G. Blough joined the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission as a staff member in 1934, the year the agency was established. Blough then became the Commission’s first Chief Accountant in December 1935, where he served through May 1938.
The Society is grateful to Dr. Stephen A. Zeff (Keith Anderson Professor of Accounting at the Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Business, Rice University) for his recent donation of a written transcript of his 1967 interview with Carman G. Blough.
The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) - a unique regulatory entity established by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 to oversee, inspect and enforce standards for auditors of publicly traded companies.
THANK YOU! This gallery was curated by Lucy Harvey and is sponsored by the Center for Audit Quality and its Governing Board member firms: Deloitte & Touche LLP, EY, KPMG LLP, PwC, Grant Thornton LLP, Crowe LLP, BDO USA, and RSM US LLP.
